What's Past is Past, Unless of Course if your a Time Traveler
by teenbooks4eva
Summary: I'll make this short and simple. Reading the Books. Percy/Nico. Some OCs welcome. Percy has a sister. Bunch of crazy Shitake Mushrooms. Have fun reading and please review. Flames welcome if you are not an anonymous. Also if anyone wants to summit a cover photo for this it is very appreciated. Last thing...I. Own. Nothing!
1. Of Welcomes and Algebra

It was a normal Winter Solstice for the Gods. Zeus, Hades and Poseidon were arguing about who ruled the best part of Earth and the others had small conversations within themselves. The conversations didn't last long because, not-to-soon later a bright flash lit the sky and a group of people tumbled from the sky. After an in-sync chorus of 'ow's and curse words, the strangers found themselves in a state of shock.

"Why have we been called here?" One of the strangers said. He had dark hair and bright green eyes that showed hints of humor, but also had a sadness hidden in the background as thought he had seen the worst of the world and lived threw it. The boy had smile lines and wore a combination of blue jeans, a white t-shirt, a camp necklace and silver ring on his fourth finger.

"You weren't called here." Zeus said and anouther light flashed and died down to show a piece of parchment. Hermes reached down and read it out loud.

"_Demigods, Gods and Goddesses,_

_You've been called here because the future has been a drastic period for the Gods. These demigods have lived threw it and are aware of the dangers ahead. We have decided to bring them here so that they may share the experiences they have had with their parent and to bond in a way they never were able to do before. You should all learn from this experience and for God's sake except your children for who they are, not their father/mother or sexual preferences._

_~The Fates"_

The room stood in complete silence yet again. One of the strangers-a blonde-said, "I think we should introduce each other now. I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and architect of Olympus." Before anyone could ask why Olympus needed an architect, anouther girl came up. She had spiky hair with a silver 'tiara' resting on the crown of her head. She had ripped, skin-tight jeans and a Death To Barbie shirt under a jean jacket.

"I am Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and Lieutenant of Athemis. Yes, I was a tree but I'm back now so don't ask."

The boy from earlier walked up and said, "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon and Savoir of Olympus". A large up roar followed the statement.

"You broke the oath!" Zeus and Hades yelled.

"Yes I did, but Zeus did as well and Hades, did you really think that we would hold it this long?" Poseidon retorted logically. Both of the elder gods nodded, reluctantly. After watching the verbal battle between the Big Three, a last boy came up.

He had dark hair and eyes that pierced your very soul. He was adorned in dark clothing and a brown, leather aviators jacket. He also had a silver ring on his finger, although no one else but those two did. The only other jewerly he wore was a silver dog tag and a emerald lip ring that he chewed in anxiety. He reluctantly let go of the green stud and said, "I'm Nico DiAngelo, son of Hades and no I wasn't born after the oath. I was born before and put in the Lotus Casino."

Anouther light flashed but this time everyone was prepared. A tower of books replaced the area where the light had previously been. Balanced on the books was a short letter that only said:

_You can tell them_

_~The Fates_

Nico and Percy exchanged looks while the girls snickered and smirked behind them.

"Tell us, what?" Aphrodite said, already having an idea.

"Um-" Nico started but was cut off by Thalia.

"Nico and Percy are dating". Said boys glared at her and the Gods and Goddesses stood shocked. Posiedon stood up and coughed and then the attention turned to him.

"Percy, are you happy with Nico?" He asked. He was replied with an urging shake of the head, in the positive way. "Then I'm O. K. with it". Hades nodded his head in agreement as well.

"If my son is happy then I am" he vocalized grufly. Both boys smiled and not-so-discretely grabbed hands.

"What about those books?" Annabeth said.

"You would be worried about the books, wouldn't you?" Percy said.

"Of course! The Fates sent then so they must be very good books...I stand corrected." Annabeth said after glancing at the cover.

"What is it?" Thalia said.

"They're about Percy" she said.

"Don't sound so disappointed. That means it's about you too, you know?" Percy retorted.

"I guess then their has to be a little good in this book" Annabeth said jokingly. Percy stuck out his tongue and laughed with the other demigods and the Gods looked at them in amusement.

"Can we just read it already!" Ares said impatiently.

"I'll start" Annabeth said and sat on the floor with the other demigods.

**"I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER"**

"How did you do that?" Nico questioned.

"You'll see" Percy smirked.

"That's going to get annoying after a while" Apollo predicted.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. **

"No one does" Annabeth said sadly. The other demigods nodded in agreement and the Gods had the decency to look down in shame-at least some of them did.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is**

"Your giving advice?" Thalia asked skeptically.

**: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. **

"Won't work" Athena said diapprovingly.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Check" said the demigod in unison

**It's scary.**

"Check"

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. **

"Check"

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. **

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of ****time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you. **

**Don't say I didn't warn you. **

"You didn't warn me" Nico, Hermes, and Apollo joked.

**My name is Percy Jackson. **

"No~ I thought it was Pedro Johnson" Mr. D said sarcastically.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. **

**Am I a troubled kid? **

"Yes" the demigods and Hera said. Causing the two female demigod to look at each other in horror because they said the same thing as their least favorite Goddess.

"Hey!" Percy protested.

"You know you'll agree in the next line" Nico whispered in his ear.

**Yeah. You could say that. **

"You know me to well" Percy whisper back.

"Aren't I suppost to?" Nico retorted.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. **

"Sounds like fun" Athena and Annabeth said.

"Sounds like torture" Posiedon mocked back to the Owl Heads.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

"Like father like son" Hermes said.

**Most Yancy field trips were. **

**But Mr. Brunner, **

"Is that-" Annabeth started, but was answered by Percy's nod.

**our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. **

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep. **

"Sad" Athena said and then glared at Percy.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. **

**Boy, was I wrong. **

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

The statement was followed by loud laughter,while Gods and demigods alike tried to catch their breath.

"Really Percy, really?" Thalia exclaimed after calming down.

"What can I say?" Percy replied.

"What where you aiming for?" Apollo asked. Percy just shrugged in defeat.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

More uncontrollable laughter followed the passage.

**And the time before that . . . Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good. **

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. **

"Ewww~" all the girls in the room squelled in disgust.

"Imagine actually being there" Percy said dryly. The previous ladies shuddered.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. **

"I wonder how Grover would react to that description?" Thalia said smugly.

"You wouldn't!" Percy said.

"I would" Thalia said, a smirk growing on her face. In reply Percy squirt Thalia in the face with water and then Thalia retaliated by shocking him.

"Stop it!" Annabeth reprimanded, while Nico silently laughed at his cousin and boyfriend.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria. **

"Way to blow your cover" Thalia said sarcastically.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled. **

"Do it!" Ares encouraged.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." **

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. **

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. **

"Awww~" Ares boo-ed.

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." **

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit**

"You'd deck a girl?" Athemis asked appalled.

"You heard about her! She's a bee with an itch" Percy defended himself. Athena thought for a moment and then shrugged reluctantly.

**right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. **

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. **

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. **

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer then that boy" Zues said.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds,**

Percy shuttered on instinct. Confused, Nico have him a worried look, that Percy ignored.

**would give me the evil eye. **

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. **

"She'd probable do worst then that" Percy overshadowed.

**She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. **

"Wonder what she actually did to her" Percy whispered.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"Nope, that's Nico" Thalia said matter-of-factly. Both Percy and Nico found that to be their cue to roll their eyes completely in sync.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey,**

Percy shuudered at the word, while Nico and Hades wondered why Mrs. Dodds sounded so familiar.

" **real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. **

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, ****and said, "You're absolutely right." **

"Way to practically let him know" Annabeth said sarcastically.

"And yet Percy still doesn't figure it out" Thalia joked. The two girls laughed merrily while Percy poured and then splashed them. Of course that was a mistake because the two demigods glared at Percy until he relented reluctantly and dried the two off.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. **

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?" **

**It came out louder than I meant it to. **

"Of course it did" Nico muttered to Percy. To answer Nico, Percy just smirked and flicked him, causing the son of Hades to pout.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. **

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?" **

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir." **

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?" **

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" **

"Really! It had to be that one, didn't it!" Thalia said and facepalmed with Annabeth and Nico.

"**Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not ****satisfied. "And he did this because . . ." **

"**Well . . ." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god**

"GOD!? Are you a complete idiot Percy!" Annabeth yelled. Almost in sync with everyone else in the room except for the person who this anger was aimed at. He shrugged and just told Annabeth to continue reading.

**, and—" **

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked. **

"**Titan," I corrected myself. **

"See, I corrected myself" Percy said.

"**And . . . he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—" **

"Did you just summarize the biggest war in history with just a few sentences?" Zues asked. Percy nodded and yet again told Annabeth to read.

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me. **

"Try living it" Hera sniffed haughtily.

"—**and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won." **

**Some snickers from the group. **

"Why are they snickering! He got it right!" Athena said.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?" **

"Busted" Apollo and Hermes snickered.

"**Busted," Grover muttered. **

"We think like a goat!" The two brothers exclaimed.

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. **

"That's a feat in it's self" Aphrodite said disdainfully.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears. **

"Or horse ears" Thalia whispered.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir." **

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, **

"Aka, a not-so-happy note" Apollo said.

**it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. **

"Like always" Artemis, Athena and Thalia said.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." **

**I knew that was coming. **

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" **

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. **

"Probably have" Annabeth said.

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me. **

"**About the Titans?" **

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it." **

"**Oh." **

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is ****vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson." **

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard. **

"He's a teacher doofus!" Annabeth reprimanded. Percy rolled his eyes a bit annoyed. Nico looked to Percy concerned. He was acting wierd and not like himself. It was like he was dreading something. _What could be so bad that has Perce is acting like this?_

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life.**

"That's just sad" Annabeth and Athena muttered.

**No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. **

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. **

"If it lasted that long then it was probably a important person and Chiron most likely knew her" Athena said logically.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. **

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. **

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. **

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere. **

"Are not!" Nico whispered angrily. Percy slowly turned sad eyes to Nico and smiled a little. Grateful for the support, Percy hugged Nico close to him.

"**Detention?" Grover asked. **

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius." **

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?" **

The whole council cracked up laughing with extreme mirth. After calming down Annabeth continued to read, with a few giggles inbetween.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. **

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. **

"Awwwww~" Aphrodite coo-ed and Hera nodded approvingly to the boy.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella ****stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table. **

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap. **

Thalia and Annabeth gritted their teeth in agitation.

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. **

"Attractive" Aphrodite said disdainfully.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. **

"Suprise, suprise. Percy, you have a temper issue" Thalia said remembering to Capture the Flag incident, but instead of his usual remark he stayed silent. Which tipped Thalia off that something was very wrong.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!" **

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. **

"Sign one she was a monster" Annabeth said.

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did ****you see—" **

"—**the water—" **

"—**like it grabbed her—" **

Thalia rolled her eyes, she was used to Percy's abilities. From experience.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. **

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—" **

Percy flinched.

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks." **

**That wasn't the right thing to say. **

"No duh" Thalia said.

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said. **

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her." **

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds ****scared Grover to death. **

The demigods smiled at the bravery of their favorite satyr.

She** glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. **

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said. **

"**But—" **

"**You—will—stay—here." **

**Grover looked at me desperately. **

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying." **

"**Honey," **

Flinch

**Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now." **

**Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

This time the demigod on the receiving side of this glare flinched.

"How bad could it be?" Ares asked hautily. Percy stared each God and Godess down until they broke.

"N-Nevermind" Ares shivered.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. **

**How'd she get there so fast? **

"Sign two" Thalia pointed out.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my ****brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. **

**I wasn't so sure. **

**I went after Mrs. Dodds. **

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel. **

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. **

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. **

**But apparently that wasn't the plan. **

"Sign three" Nico brought up.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back ****in the Greek and Roman section. **

**Except for us, the gallery was empty. **

Fou-" "We get it!" Percy interrupted Annabeth.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. **

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it . . . **

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," **

El flinch

**she said. **

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am." **

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" **

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. **

Posiedon and Nico began to worry. Posiedon clinched his throne and Nico held Percy's hand to resure himself that Percy was alive and well.

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not ****like she's going to hurt me. **

"Sike" Percy whispered, causing Nico to tighten his hold on Percy's hand.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am." **

**Thunder shook the building. **

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain." **

**I didn't know what she was talking about. **

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book. **

The tention in the room eased a bit to the point that the Gods chuckled a bit about this.

"**Well?" she demanded. **

"**Ma'am, I don't . . ." **

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. **

"She was a Fury!? Why didn't you tell me?!" Nico whispered to Percy.

"Because you'll worry, relax. I'm perfectly fine" Percy reasured his boyfriend. It helped, but Nico slid closer to Percy and put his head on his shoulder-just in case.

**Then things got even stranger. **

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. **

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. **

"A PEN!? IT'S A PEN!?" Posiedon panicked.

(I loved that scene)

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. **

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. **

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. **

**She snarled, "Die, honey!" **

La flinch

**And she flew straight at me. **

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. **

"That's natural to you?" Athena asked. Percy just nodded and pulled Nico closer to him.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! **

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me. **

**I was alone. **

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. **

"The mist is still affecting you?" Annabeth asked, and Percy ignored.

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something. **

"Really?" Thalia asked disbelievingly.

**Had I imagined the whole thing? **

**I went back outside. **

**It had started to rain. **

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt." **

"Who?" Everyone but Percy asked.

**I said, "Who?" **

"We talk like Percy!" Hermes and Apollo gasped.

"**Our teacher. Duh!" **

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. ****I asked Nancy what she was talking about. **

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away. **

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was. **

**He said, "Who?" **

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me. **

"Grover can't lie for his life" Thalia exclaimed.

"**Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." **

**Thunder boomed overhead. **

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. **

**I went over to him. **

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson." **

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. **

"**Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?" **

"Now Chiron. He can lie" Thalia assessed.

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher." **

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"That's the end" Annabeth said.


	2. Three Old Ladies and Three New Secrets

"I'll read" Thalia said and then took the book from Annabeth.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. **

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho. **

"You are psycho" Thalia interrupted herself.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed. **

**Almost.**

"Bet that it's Grover's fault" a certain forging God said.

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Thought so" he muttered to himself.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. **

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum. **

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat. **

Nico hugged Percy in comfort. Which Percy accepted gladly.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. **

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

Both the wisdom Goddess and Annabeth shook their heads in disappointment.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. **

Only Annabeth and Athena laughed. When questioned Athena said, "it means old drunk".

The rest of the council began to laugh as well. It took a few good minutes to calm them all down.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good. **

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy. **

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine. **

**I was homesick. **

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side hoping that **_**she**_** would have came home**

Everyone (sanes Percy) was confused. Who was _she_ and did _she_ ever come home. One look confirmed that _she_ hadn't.

**(althought he doubted it) , even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties. **

Percy growled.

**And yet . . . there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me. **

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy ****tournament days and his faith that I could do well. **

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him. **

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

Cue gasps from the brainacks in the room.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.**

"I hate that" the demigods all muttered.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"I know now" Percy said to himself.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it. **

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. **

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson. **

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. **

"Maybe that's why your failing!" Athena exclaimed.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried. **

"Awwwww," Aphrodite coo-ed.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. **

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said ". . . worried about Percy, sir." **

**I froze. **

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Suuuure" Nico muttered, remembering when he had first gotten to camp.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult. **

"Challenge. Accepted." Apollo said.

**I inched closer. **

"**. . . alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more." **

"He still hasn't matured enough" Thalia whispered to Annabeth.

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline—" **

Gears worked in Athena's mind.

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can." **

"**Sir, he saw her. . . ." **

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that." **

"**Sir, I . . . I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion.**

"Didn't fail" the demigods muttered in sync.

"**You know what that would mean." **

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—" **

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Oh, fail" Hermes assessed.

**Mr. Brunner went silent. **

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. **

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow. **

"He was in full form!?" Annabeth exclaimed.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. **

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on. **

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. **

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice." **

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn . . ."**

"**Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow." **

"**Don't remind me." **

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. **

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. **

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. **

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night. **

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?" **

**I didn't answer. **

"**You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?" **

"**Just . . . tired." **

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, **

"Won't work" Zues said.

**and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing. **

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger. **

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. **

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem. **

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's . . . it's for the best." **

"Oh. It's one of Chiron's fails for a pep talk" Annabeth said.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips. **

The demigods glared at the books. (Sanes Percy)

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

"**I mean . . ." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time." **

**My eyes stung. **

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out. **

"**Right," I said, trembling. **

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say . . . you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—" **

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me." **

"**Percy—" **

**But I was already gone. **

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies. **

"Not anymore" Percy said and smiled.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city. **

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about **_**her**_** and where I'd go to school in the fall. **

Their was that mention of her. The presence of her scared the demigods, (besides the obvious) anyone who can depress Percy worried them, in fact.

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool." **

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed. **

"Jerks" Nico muttered.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"I got a feeling. Somebodies watching me" Apollo sang.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. **

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. **

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?" **

"That must have gave him a heart attack" Annabeth laughed.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?" **

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam. **

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?" **

"All of it" Hades said.

"**Oh . . . not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?" **

**He winced. "Look, Percy . . . I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers . . ."**

"**Grover—" **

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and . . ." **

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." **

**His ears turned pink. **

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer." **

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like: **

"Who makes those anyway?" Athena asked and was then promptly ignored.

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper **

**Half-Blood Hill **

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009 **

"**What's Half—" **

"**Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um . . . summer address." **

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy. **

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." **

**He nodded. "Or . . . or if you need me." **

"**Why would I need you?" **

"Harsh" Hermes said.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to. **

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you." **

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me. **

"Awww~" Aphrodite coo-ed.

"**Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?" **

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. **

"Bad luck" Apollo said and smiled sympathetically.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. **

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. **

This is when Athena and Annabeth's wheels started turning.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn. **

Both girls collectivally gasped, but let the story go on.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. **

"The Fates!" Apollo yelled. Questions and shouts were thrown around the room.

"How are you here?" Nico whispered softly. He clutched Percy close to be positive he was well and alive.

"It wasn't mine" Percy comforted Nico. Percy wrapped Nico in his arms and kissed his forehead. "I'm right here".

"I know. I know," Nico muttered in Percy's chest.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. **

Nico unvoluntarily flinched.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching. **

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?" **

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?" **

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all." **

Nico whimmpered.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath. **

"**We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on." **

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there." **

"**Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. **

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn,**

Nico flinched again.

**and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Not funny, Percy" Thalia muttered, interrupting herself.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life. **

**The passengers cheered. **

"**Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!" **

Everyone cheered, more relieved then before.

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. **

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. **

"**Grover?" **

"**Yeah?" **

"**What are you not telling me?" **

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?" **

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about ****them, man? They're not like . . . Mrs. Dodds, are they?" **

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.**

"Much worst" Athena said darkly.

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw." **

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." **

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older. **

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord." **

"**Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal. **

"Very big" Annabeth said nervously.

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time." **

"**What last time?" **

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past ****sixth." **

"Yes we do" Nico, Percy and Thalia said stubbornly.

"**Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?" **

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me." **

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. **

"**Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked. **

**No answer. **

"**Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" **

"Yes" Percy answered his past question.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's the end" Thalia said.

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorites and alerted to this story!**


	3. What?

"I'll read" Apollo said.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal. **

"Rude" Hera reprimanded.

**I know, I know. It was rude.**

"At least he knows" she admonished.

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?" **

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown. **

"**East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver. **

"No-Apollo and Hermes. We moved so you can't prank me", Percy said and the two boys aww~'d.

**A word about my mother, before you meet ****her. **

"Great" Thalia said.

"Wonderful" Annabeth added.

"Nice" said Nico.

"The best" Percy added in his two cents.

"Beautiful" Posiedon said wistfully.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world**

"Yep", Percy agreed with his past self.

**, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck**

"That pretty much puts you in a nut shell" Nico whispered to Percy and kissed his cheek.

**. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five,**

Hera glared at Zues.

**and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma. **

"She's brilliant, how did she fall in love with this Kelp for Brains!" Athena said in shock.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad. **

"I don't see how that's even possible" Athena muttered.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. **

"I visited you once" Posiedon said and glanced proudly at his son.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. **

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. **

"A big secret" Zues and Haees mummbled in sync.

**Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he ****never came back. **

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea. **

I can see why Uncle Posiedon lives her. She just lied, but didn't lie" Hermes said in awe.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid. **

"No demigods are" Hera sniffed in dislike.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice to me the first few years we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. Even earlier to **_**her**_**. **

More confused glances were shot around the room. No one knew who _she_ was.

**When I was young, we both nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. **

"Gross" all the girls said in disgust.

**Between the three of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her and **_**her**_**, **

Anouther round of glances went around the room.

**the way he and I got along, and when **_**her**_**-my sister, Cassandra, ran away**

Only silence could accompany this statement, everyone loked at Percy. No one had assummed this, nor knew. Not even Posiedon knew of the child. Why hadn't Percy said anything about a sister, gone or not. The only person not in shock was Percy. Shocker. (Pun intended). He stared at the wall and remembered the sister he hadn't seen in almost seven years. She always tried to get him to learn to play an instrument, but he had continued to fail at it until she gave up. It had been decided that the Sea Prince didn't have a talent for music that day. The two of them also used to dance around randomly to the oddest songs, from parodies to Creature Feature (recommendation for the day...you're welcome). Both of them did the best things together, they where very close, that's why he never mentioned her. I hurt him to talk about her after she had ran away, but now that everyone knows he would have to talk about it. Had to remember.

"...Percy?" Nico whispered, breaking threw Percy's thoughts. He looked down at the Ghost King in question. "Why did you tell us?" He said while the rest of the council looked at the duo carefully. The only answer he gave was a shrug.

"We could have helped you find her or get in contact" Thalia said, trying to comfort the son of Posiedon.

"It's fine, she's probably better off now anyway" Percy said in a tone that said that he didn't want to talk about it. Ncio nodded in understanding, he knew how it felt to loose a sister at a young age and didn't blame him for not telling (well, didn't COMPLETELY blame him). Resting his head on Percy's shoulder, Nico rubbed his back in comfort and then glared at Apollo to start reading. After a flinch, Apollo began the book again.

**. . . well, when I came home is a good example. **

"Great" Thalia muttered.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over ****the carpet. **

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home." **

"Nice" Annabeth muttered.

"**Where's my mom?" **

"**Working," he said. "You got any cash?" **

"He actually asked you that!?" Athemis said in disgust.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? **

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something. **

Everygirl shuddered.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would beat me.**

Anouther gap of silence was issued. The only difference this time was that the sound after was louder and deafing.

"HE DID WHAT TO PERCY!" Thalia screamed. She was hyperventilating in anger, filling prepared to murder that filthy man. She wasn't the only one thought, Annabeth was shaking in anger and Posiedon was at the verge of a tsuname.

Meanwhile, Percy was shaking, his face hidden in Nico's hair. Nico could feel tears and just continued to comfort him. Nico now understood Percy's fatal flaw, he never wanted anyone to be hurt in any way. He respected and loved Percy even more then he had before, but he also was worried for him. He never mentioned anything about it, and he never even looked like it. Percy was naturally hyper. Things like this happening to him just never seemed probable.

"Percy, I won't let anything happen to you again. Understood? I loved you too much to lose you" Nico whispered lovingly into Percy's ear. Gratefully, Percy nodded in understanding. Percy felt as thought he was now closer to Nico, two big walls had collapsed and he could see the Son of Hades clearer. Almost as thought they had fallen farther in love.

Everyone waited until Percy was ready to talk. He dried his tears with his magic powers and looked up.

"I'm sorry for not telling, I didn't want any pity. Please forgive me" Percy said sincerely. Thalia went up and socked his arm.

"Don't apologize for something that isn't your fault" She reprimanded. He only smiled fondly.

"Course"

"**I don't have any cash," I told him. **

**He raised a greasy eyebrow. **

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else. **

"Oh~" Athena and Annabeth said in understanding.

"**You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?" **

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here." **

"At least someone has deciency!" Hestia exclaimed.

"**Am I right?" Gabe repeated. **

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony. **

"**Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the**

**table. "I hope you lose."**

"Done" Mr. D said, snapping his fingers.

"Mr. D! Your paying attention!" Percy joked.

"Of course not Pedro!" He answered.

"**Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!" **

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer. **

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home. **

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn. **

"That is bad" Nico said lightly.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons. **

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

The room lightened up.

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. **

"Why can't you all care about me that way!" Hera huffed jealously.

"Because you threw me off of Olympius!" The crippled god said.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me, Cassie or Gabe. **

"She's good" Thalia said.

"**Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!" **

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home. **

"Yum!" Hermes, Apollo, and Percy said.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting ****expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right? **

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her. **

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?" **

**I gritted my teeth. **

So did the rest of the council and group of demigods.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe. **

"Or a god, right Uncle P." Hermes said. Posiedon blushed and Aphrodite squeeled.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum . . . **

"**What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?" **

"**No, Mom." **

"Never lie to your mother!" Hermes said ironically.

**I **felt** bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid. **

"Not to her" Posiedon said.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me. **

"**I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach." **

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?" **

Percy, Nico, and Posiedon smiled fondly. Posiedon thinking of Sally, Percy rembering his time there, and Nico remembering when Percy had brought him there one summer.

"**Three nights—same cabin." **

"**When?" **

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed." **

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because ****Gabe said there wasn't enough money. **

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?" **

**I wanted to punch him, **

"So do I" Nico grumbled.

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here. **

"**I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip." **

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?" **

"**I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go." **

"**Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works." **

"She could bribe even me!" Hermes said in awe and respect for her.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip . . . it comes out of your clothes budget, ****right?" **

"What!?" Aphrodite screamed.

"**Yes, honey," my mother said. **

"**And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back." **

"**We'll be very careful." **

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip . . . And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game." **

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week. **

"YES!" everyone screamed, sanes Percy.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. **

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought? **

"**I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now." **

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was ****probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement. **

"**Yeah, whatever," he decided. **

**He went back to his game. **

"**Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about . . . whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?" **

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. **

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. **

**An hour later we were ready to leave. **

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

"**Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch." **

"Yes, because Percy's gunna drive. He's 12!" Nico said angrily.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

Nico blushed.

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me. **

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. **

"Da~mm" Apollo interrupted himself to whisle.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it. **

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and ****spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in. **

**I loved the place. **

Nico nodded in agreement and then leaned into Percy more.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad. **

"Awww~" Aphrodite coo-ed.

**As **we** got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea. **

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work. **

"What's with the blue food?" Hera asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food. **

"Please do"

See,** Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since ****my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me and Cassy. **

"You don't have a streak of rebellion. You have a streak of obedience...sometimes" said Thalia.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop. **

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them. **

"**He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"You do" Nico said, smiling. He loved Percy's eyes.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud." **

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years. **

Nico huffed, he loved that part of Percy.

"**How old was I?" I asked. "I mean . . . when he left?" **

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin." **

"**But . . . he knew me as a baby." **

"**No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born." **

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember . . . something about my father. A warm glow. A smile. **

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd ****felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me . . . **

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe. **

"**Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?" **

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. **

"**I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think . . . I think we'll have to do something." **

"**Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out. **

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away." **

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy. **

**"Because I'm not normal," I said. **

"Not even is demigod standards" Thalia joked.

"**You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe." **

"**Safe from what?" **

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget. **

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground.**

**When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head. **

"Sorry, my fault" Posiedon said guiltily.

"It's fine" Percy waved off.

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to ****death with my meaty toddler hands. **

"DA~mn child!" Hermes said in shock

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. **

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that. **

"**I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just . . . I just can't stand to do it." **

"**My father wanted me to go to a special school?" **

"**Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp." **

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to ****see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before? **

"**I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good." **

"**For good? But if it's only a summer camp . . ." **

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry. **

**That night I had a vivid dream. **

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No! **

**I woke with a start. **

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. **

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane." **

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.**

"How could you forget, uncle P!" Hermes exclaimed with Apollo.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. **

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. **

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't . . . he wasn't exactly Grover. **

"**Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?" **

"Who said he was thinking?" Annabeth said stiffly.

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come. **

"**Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?" **

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. **

"**O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?" **

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have**

**his pants on—and where his legs should be . . . where his legs should be . . . **

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!" **

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. **

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!" **

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. **

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Done!" Apollo exclaimed. Before the next person could take that book a searing flash burned everyone's eyes, forcing everyone but Apollo to close their eyes. When it cooled down everyone saw four women standing at the area the light previously was.

One of the girls was Thalia, but she seemed much older. Almost like she was, empty. The other was a older version of Clarisse that no one had seem before, she stood over a dark haired girl. The girl was short and wore a black leather jacket. Under it was a baggy neon green tee shirt and black, ripped skinny jeans. She glared at everyone in contempt.

All the girls were stared at in suprise, but only one held the attention of the room. She had dark, black, curly hair that was up in a ponytail. She had an easy going smile and emerald green eyes. At the moment she was wearing loose jeans, a DenNor hoodie, and a bright green headband to put up her bangs. All-in-all, she was the female carbon-copy of Percy.

**Thank you for reading! Please review and all the usual. Usually I don't have an AN. But I wanted to ask you all some questions. Who do you think the third and fourth girl is? Why are Clarisse and Thalia here? And lastly...how is the story so far? Anyone answers any of these questions, or even reviews I will answer any question, spoiler or not! **

**Lastly, I want to tell you all something. I was answering several reviews when someone asked who **_**she **_**is. I then told her to look at the summary... she totally made my day and helped me finish this chapter. Thank you (you know who you are, but for these proposes only I'll call you this) Derpina**


	4. We Got It, Sivo

"Percy?" The stranger asked.

"Cassie?" Percy said in disbelief. The other beings in the room gasped.

"Percy!" She squealed and bounced up and down, then she noticed the younger boy on her brother's lap. Openly gaping, Cassie's jaw dropped to the ground. After recuperating, she screamed, "I knew it!"

The council stared as the odd girl danced around in victory. Percy only shook his head, same old Cassie. Yaoi/Yuri fangirl to the bone.

"So~ , whose the lucky boy?" Cassandra asked suggestivaly.

"This is Nico DiAngelo, son of Hades" Percy answered, his love for the boy was obvious. Cassie walked up to the two and hugged Percy, all these years without him were aweful.

"I missed you big brother" she said happily.

"Missed you too" Perv whispered in bliss. Years of worry escaped his heart and disappeared.

"I understand that she's Cassandra, but who are the two other demigods, and how is Thalia here when she is right there?" Athena asked.

The smaller girl stepped up and said, "I'm Jesse", then stepped back out.

"I'm the future Thalia," she said.

"Clarisse LaRue, also from the future. 2031, to be exact." Clarisse said. All three of the other girls were dirty and had cuts all over them. The smaller one, Jesse, even had some monster dust on her.

"Well? Why are we here?" Jesse said curtly.

"You see, we're here because our friend, Percy, did a lot in his life. So someone made a myth about it...and here we are!" Thalia said sarcastically. During this explaination, Older Thalia (let's just call her ... um- Lia) and Clarisse looked down in guilt. They both knew this was before the accident, the one that killed two people in this room. It also orpaned Jesse and caused the three of them to go on the quest to find the Esylum Key. The two got up in sync, grabbed Jesse, and pulled her out of the room. When the finally got her out, they turned around and looked at the younger girl.

"Jesse, two people in that room are your parents. And you need to know who they are..."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The three girls re-entered the room and sat down on the ground.

"We going to read, or what?" Clarisse growled. She grabbed the book and opened it to the next page.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas. **

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal. **

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom . . . know each other?" **

"Really, Prissy?" Clarisse said, almost fondly, to herself.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person ****But she knew I was watching you." **

"**Watching me?" **

"Stalker~" Thalia sang.

"**Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend." **

"**Um . . . what are you, exactly?" **

"**That doesn't matter right now." **

"**It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—" **

"Idiot" Annabeth muttered.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!" **

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat. **

"**Goat!" he cried. **

"**What?" **

"**I'm a goat from the waist down." **

"**You just said it didn't matter."**

**Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!" **

"**Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like . . . Mr. Brunner's myths?" **

"Myths?" Hera said miffly.

"**Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?" **

"**So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!" **

"One track mind" Annabeth muttered.

"**Of course." **

"**Then why—" **

"**The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are." **

"**Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?" **

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

"**Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety." **

"**Safety from what? Who's after me?" **

"**Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions." **

"Oh, Grover" Nico said, aggravated.

"**Grover!" **

"**Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?" **

"Yes, please" Posiedon said worridly.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird. **

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences. **

"**Where are we going?" I asked.**

"**The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you." **

"**The place you didn't want me to go." **

"**Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger." **

"**Because some old ladies cut yarn." **

"**Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to . . . when someone's about to die." **

"**Whoa. You said 'you.'" **

"**No I didn't. I said 'someone.'" **

"**You meant 'you.' As in me." **

"**I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you." **

Aphrodite was getting a headache, with anyone else who was listening.

"**Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm. **

"**What was that?" I asked. **

"**We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please." **

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive. **

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me. **

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner . . . and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling ****boom!, and our car exploded. **

"Crap" Cassie, Posiedon, and Nico said worriedly.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. **

The previously mentioned beings continued to worry frantically.

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow." **

"That's all you can say!" Cassie panicked, and then slapped his head

"**Percy!" my mom shouted. **

"**I'm okay. . . ." **

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in. **

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!" **

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you ****to die! **

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope. **

"**Percy," my mother said, "we have to . . ." Her voice faltered. **

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns. **

"You fought a minotaur!?" Cassie shouted.

"And a Fury, at the time" Percy casually answered. Cassie slapped the back of his head again.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—" **

"**Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car." **

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

"**Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?" **

"**What?" **

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree–sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill. **

"Me!" Both Thalia's said.

"**That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door." **

"**Mom, you're coming too." **

Everyone looked at the twins in sympathy.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean. **

"**No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover." **

"**Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder. **

**The man with the blanket on his head kept ****snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head . . . was his head. And the points that looked like horns . . . **

"**He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line." **

"**But . . ." **

"**We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please." **

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull. **

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom." **

"**I told you—"**

"**Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover." **

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid. **

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass. **

"Someone should cut the grass" Demeter muttered.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders. **

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous ****black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener. **

"Epp!" Cassie squeled in fear for her mom and brother.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real. **

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—" **

"**Pasiphae's son,"**

"Smart woman" Artemis muttered.

**my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you." **

"**But he's the Min—" **

"**Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power." **

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least. **

**I glanced behind me again. **

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"**Food?" Grover moaned. **

"**Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?" **

"**His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough." **

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded. **

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying. **

Cassie flinched unvoluntarily and Percy grabbed her hand.

**Oops. **

Several people nervously chuckled.

"**Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?" **

"**How do you know all this?"**

"**I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me." **

"**Keeping me near you? But—" **

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill. **

**He'd smelled us. **

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. **

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. **

The underlying yaoi in that statement made Cassie and Jesse chuckle.

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said." **

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. **

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. **

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass. **

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it. **

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover. **

"**Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!" **

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the ****monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air. **

"**Mom!" **

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!" **

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply . . . gone. **

"What!?" Most of the room gasped. No one but Percy, Clarisse and Annabeth knew about his first year. Cassie was on the verge of tears until Percy whispered something to her. Every tear ceased and she smiled in relief.

"**No!" **

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons. **

"Good" Nico muttered.

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about ****to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too. **

**I couldn't allow that. **

**I stripped off my red rain jacket. **

"**Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!" **

Several chuckled.

"**Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists. **

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment. **

**But it didn't happen like that. **

"Of course not" Cassie, Nico, and Posiedon whispered to themselves.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge. **

**Time slowed down. **

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature ****creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck. **

"Crap...that's pretty good for a rookie", Ares and Clarisse both said gruffly.

**How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out. **

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils. **

"Gross", Aphrodite panicked.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward. **

"Duh," Thalia said.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off. **

"**Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap! **

"Oh! That's how you got it!" Nico said.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife. **

**The monster charged. **

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage. **

Cassie sighed in relief. He was safe...for now.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone. **

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go. **

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be." **

Cue suggestive eyebrows, and a_ bit _of jealousy from Nico.

"**Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Done!" Clarisse said and then set the book down.

"I suggest we eat some dinner, do a few more chapters and then go to sleep" Athena said. Everyone agreed.


	5. Really Fast Chapter

**READ AN! READ AN! READ AN!**

**My new obsession has gotten so bad that I wasn't even planning to update, so don't be too supposed this chapter is aweful. Anyone want to know what my new obsession is? Rise of the Guardians...I know it's like PG, but it is the most epic movie ever. Anyone who has seen this wonderful movie should tell moi! I have a callange for all of you! Anyone who has seen this movie review and tell me, then tell me your favorite:**

**Character (Jack)**

**Scene (When Jack first goes to the North Pole)**

**Who Jack reminds you of. (Prussia)**

**Whoever answers these questions will get the internet award! Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you all that during the last chapter someone had pointed out that instead of Percy I had accidentally wrote Pervy, that person is a boss! You my girl/boy are brilliant! (::) (::) (::) (::) cookie/buttons for you! All of y'all should stop reading (only time I will ever say this) and watch Rise of the Guardians.**

"Ok! Let's all get threw these next two chapters quickly before lunch and then take the afternoon off!" Athena negotiated.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food. **

"You and your dreams" Thalia said resentfully.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon. **

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?" **

**I managed to croak, "What?" **

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

"**I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't . . ." **

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding. **

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone. **

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes— at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands. **

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt. **

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It ****looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. **

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it. **

"**Careful," a familiar voice said. **

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover. Not the goat boy. **

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And . . . **

"**You saved my life," Grover said. "I . . . well, the least I could do . . . I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this." **

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap. **

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the ****base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. **

**It hadn't been a nightmare. **

"**The Minotaur," I said. **

"**Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea—" **

"**That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull." **

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?" **

"**My mom. Is she really . . ." **

**He looked down. **

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful. **

"**I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm—I'm the worst satyr in the world." **

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole. **

"**Oh, Styx!" he mumbled. **

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky. **

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it. **

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. **

**All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.****I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with . . . Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something. **

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit. **

**I said, "It wasn't your fault." **

"**Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you." **

"**Did my mother ask you to protect me?" **

"**No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least . . . I was." **

"**But why . . ." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming. **

"**Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." **

**He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips. **

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was ****expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies—my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay. **

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted. **

"**Was it good?" Grover asked. **

**I nodded. **

"**What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty. **

"**Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste." **

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just . . . wondered."**

"**Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade." **

"I taste dark chocolate" said Nico.

"French toast" Thalia added.

"Hamburgers" Annabeth also said.

"Steak" Clarisse added her own two cents.

"Same as older me", Lia said.

"Fried dough" Jesse added quickly.

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?" **

"**Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards." **

"**That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff." **

"**What do you mean?" **

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting." **

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse. **

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go. **

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture—an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena—except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school–age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings. **

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. **

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like ****those paintings of baby angels— what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather. **

"**That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron. . . ." **

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me. **

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard. **

"**Mr. Brunner!" I cried. **

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.**

"**Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle." **

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you." **

"**Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr. **

"**Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl. **

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now." **

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron." **

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of ****inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight. **

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that. **

"Yaleah right, Seaweed Brain" Annabeth snorted.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep." **

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her. **

"**So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?" **

"**Not Mr. Brunner," the ex–Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron." **

"**Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D . . . does that stand for ****something?" **

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason." **

"**Oh. Right. Sorry." **

"**I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time." **

"**House call?" **

"**My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to . . . ah, take a leave of absence." **

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without ****explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class. **

"**You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked. **

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test." **

"**Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?" **

"**Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt. **

"**You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously. **

"**I'm afraid not," I said. **

"**I'm afraid not, sir," he said.**

**Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less. **

"**Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules." **

"**I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said. **

"**Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?" **

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question." **

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile. **

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer. **

"**Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?"**

"**She said . . ." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her." **

"**Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?" **

"**What?" I asked. **

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did. **

"**I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient." **

"**Orientation film?" I asked. **

"**No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"—he pointed to the horn in the shoe box—"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are ****very much alive." **

**I stared at the others around the table. **

**I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points. **

"**Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?" **

"**Eh? Oh, all right." **

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully. **

"**Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God." **

"**Well, now," Chiron said. "God—capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical." **

"**Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—"**

"**Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter." **

"Smaller matter?" The gods all questioned to themselves.

"**Smaller?" **

"**Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class." **

"**Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them." **

**And there it was again—distant thunder on a cloudless day. **

"**Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you." **

"**But they're stories," I said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science." **

"**Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"—I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody—"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand ****years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals—they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me." **

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if . . . he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut. **

"**Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?" **

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate. **

"**You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said. **

"**Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, ****how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?" **

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods." **

"**Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you." **

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock." **

"**A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe!" **

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine. **

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked ****up. **

"**Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions." **

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise. **

"**Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!" **

**More thunder. **

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game. **

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits." **

"**A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space. **

"**Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time—well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay ****away—the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha! Absolutely unfair." **

"Yeah, for us" Percy said.

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid. **

"**And . . ." I stammered, "your father is . . ." **

"**Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course." **

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master. **

"**You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine." **

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?" **

"**Y-yes, Mr. D."**

"**Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?" **

"**You're a god." **

"**Yes, child." **

"**A god. You." **

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life. **

"**Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly. **

"**No. No, sir." **

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his ****card game. "I believe I win." **

"**Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me." **

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too. **

"**I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment." **

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir." **

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners." **

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably. **

"**Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron. **

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit ****troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been . . . ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus." **

"**Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?" **

"**Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do." **

"**You mean the Greek gods are here? Like . . . in America?" **

"**Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West." **

"**The what?" **

"**Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness ****that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know—or as I hope you know, since you passed my course—the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps— Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on—but the same forces, the same gods." **

"**And then they died." **

"**Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you ****to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not—and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either—America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here." **

**It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club. **

"**Who are you, Chiron? Who . . . who am I?" **

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down. **

"**Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate." **

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But ****there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached. **

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk. **

"**What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"Nice way to end it!" Nico said happily.


	6. Spray Painted Unicorns in Manhattan

_**EVERYONE READ THIS! If you have made it this far in the story I need to tell you something. If you have a DeviantArt account follow "teenmusic4eva". Yes this is me, but this isn't a publicity act. If their is any sudden news about this story and I can't post then it will be up on there. All news about my stories and really anything should be up there, so in order jot to be confused I'll need you to try to follow.**_

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front. **

The council and demigods cracked up laughing, stopping only after five minutes later.

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him." **

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, **

"Got that right" Nico said. Percy blushed, giving everyone else the idea that they've missed something.

**but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

"Can you?" Thalia asked.

"Yes" Percy, Nico, Jessie, Lia, and Cassie said.

"How do you-" Zues started. Percy got up and flipped before he could finish the sentence though. The council clapped politely. Even if a few of them were impressed...a bit...with the demigod.

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched. **

"**What's up there?" I asked Chiron. **

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic." **

"**Somebody lives there?" **

"**No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing." **

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain. **

"**Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe. **

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort." **

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead. **

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D. **

"**Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean . . . he was a good protector. Really." **

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and ****draped it over his horse's back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill." **

"**But he did that!" **

"**I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate . . . ah . . . fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part." **

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble. **

"**He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy.**

Thalia, Lia, and Annabeth sighed in regret.

**The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age. . . ." **

"**How old is he?" **

"**Oh, twenty-eight." **

"**What! And he's in sixth grade?" **

"**Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years." **

"**That's horrible." **

"**Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career. . . ." **

"**That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?" **

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind. **

"**Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real . . ." **

"**Yes, child?" **

"**Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?" **

**Chiron's expression darkened. **

"**Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now . . . until we know more . . . I would urge you to put that out of your mind." **

"**What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

"**Come, Percy. Let's see the woods." **

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans. **

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed." **

"**Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?" **

"**You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?" **

"**My own—?" **

"**No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do.**

"I had my own" Jessie muttered, fingering the pen in her pocket. It was her father's.

**I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later." **

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), ****the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights. **

"**Sword and spear fights?" I asked. **

"**Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall." **

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls. **

"**What do you do when it rains?" I asked. **

"Really?" Annabeth said.

"Gave me a break. I didn't know at that time!" Percy exclaimed.

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject. **

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. **

Percy bowed his head in shame. Nico then grabbed his hand, he knew that Percy still blamed himself. Nico also knew the one thing to keep Perce's mind off of Charlie. Nico grabbed Percy's chin and angled it towards him. He kissed Percy forcefully, making Percy stiffen in continued until Percy eased into the kiss, it went on for a good five minutes until they had to separate. No one was reading, they all stared-which made Nico blush a deep red. Percy laughed merrily, much more happy now, and pulled Nico onto his lap and kissed his forehead. Nico smiled, happy he could make his lover happy.

"Now that you two have released sexual tension. May we continue?" Thalia said, used to the display infront of her.

**Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed). **

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick. **

"You saw me" Hestia said in awe.

"Of course Lady Hestia" Percy said respectively.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns ****garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks. **

"**Zeus and Hera?" I guessed. **

"**Correct," Chiron said. **

"**Their cabins look empty." **

"**Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two." **

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. **

**Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty? **

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three. **

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy." **

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers. **

**Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. **

"Cause it was" Annabeth muttered.

**The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALFBLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed. **

"**No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here." **

"**You said your name was Chiron. Are you really . . ." **

**He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am." **

"**But, shouldn't you be dead?" **

"Tactless, even then" Thalia said. Remembering right before they got to Westover and Percy asked about her family.

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish . . . and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list. **

"What are on your Top Ten Things to Wish For list?" Nico asked, interested.

"Well-

10: to graduate high school

9: to be a marine biologist

7: to live to 18

6: to be a father

5: have my daughter's middle name to be Bianca

4: private

3: private

2: to get a home in New York City

1: to marry Nico

-that's pretty much it so far" Percy said. Nico, who was still on Perce's lap, blushed and hide his face in the crook of Percy's neck.

"Awwwww~ you two are so cute!" Aphrodite coo-ed, making both of the boys blush a deep red and to make the whole room besides them crack up laughing. After everyone calmed down they restarted the book.

"**Doesn't it ever get boring?" **

"**No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring." **

"**Why depressing?" **

"Tact" Cassie muttered disapprovingly.

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again. **

"**Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us." **

**The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven. **

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled. **

Everyone chuckled a bit at the reminder.

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia ****was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. **

"Corny!"

**There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book. **

"Probably was" everyone who knew Annabeth said.

"**Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?" **

"**Yes, sir." **

"**Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home." **

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old.**

Hermes huffed, angrily.

**The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it . . . ? A caduceus. **

"At least you knew that" Athena said disdainfully.

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully. **

"**Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner." **

**He galloped away toward the archery range. **

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools. **

"**Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on." **

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself.**

"Natually" Younger Thalia commented.

**There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything. **

**Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven." **

"**Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked. **

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, ****"Undetermined." **

**Everybody groaned. **

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there." **

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash. **

"**This is Luke," **

Everyone who knew of his fate looked down in respect.

**Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing. **

"Was not" Annabeth grumbled.

**She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now." **

"**For now?" I asked. **

"**You're undetermined," Luke explained ****patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers." **

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves. **

"The genius is on a roll!" Thalia exclaimed.

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets. **

"**How long will I be here?" I asked. **

"**Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined." **

"**How long will that take?" **

**The campers all laughed. **

"**Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

"**I've already seen it." **

"**Come on." **

**She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me. **

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that." **

"How was he supposed to know though?" Jessie spoke up, but still softly. No one heard her.

"**What?" **

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one." **

"**What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—" **

"**Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?" **

"**To get killed?" **

"**To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories . . ." **

"**Yes." **

"**Then there's only one." **

"**Yes." **

"**And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So . . ." **

"Even if it's wrong...it's still quite logical" Cassie muttered.

"**Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die." **

"**Oh, thanks. That clears it up." **

"**They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form." **

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—" **

"**The Fur . . . I mean, your math teacher. That's ****right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad." **

"**How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?" **

"**You talk in your sleep." **

"It's true" Nico said, smiling.

"**You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?" **

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all." **

"**Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?"**

"No" Apollo said in a bad version of Zues.

**I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there." **

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or . . . your parent."**

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it. **

"**My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to." **

"**I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad." **

"**He's dead. I never knew him." **

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy." **

"**How can you say that? You know him?" **

"**No, of course not." **

"**Then how can you say—" **

"**Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us." **

"**You don't know anything about me." **

"**No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you ****moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them." **

"Not to mention three weeks in juvie" Cassie said with a smirk.

"That was your fault, your idea and your spray paint!" Percy argued.

"Yeah, but you stole the horse, super glue and icecream cone!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait! What happened?!" Annabeth said, alarmed.

"Well you see, a year before Cassie ran away she had thought of this great plan to trick someone into buying a unicorn off us. So Cassie got some spray paint and I stole a horse and some other stuff. About half way through, thought, the horse went berserk and ran around Manhattan. We couldn't calm it down so a half painted, pink and purple sparkly horse eventually attracted a lot of attention. Not to menion the horn was only half way on so it looked very demented. So, well, we got caught and ended up in juvie for three weeks". Percy explained quickly, blushing a bit.

"Got my first boyfriend to while we were at it!" Cassie giggled.

"**How—" **

"**Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too." **

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?" **

"**Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are." **

"**You sound like . . . you went through the same thing?" **

"**Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like ****us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar." **

"**Ambrosia and nectar." **

"**The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood." **

**A half-blood. **

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start. **

"My first question would have been: dufuq!?" Cassie said.

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!" **

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets. **

"**Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?" **

"Is that you?" Jessie asked her friend. Clarisse only nodded back.

"**Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

"**Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance." **

"**We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?" **

"**Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares." **

**I blinked. "Like . . . the war god?" **

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?" **

"**No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell." **

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy." **

"**Percy." **

"**Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

"**Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say. **

"**Stay out of it, wise girl." **

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep. **

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom. **

"Sorry about that Percy" Clarisse said, to everyone's shock. Everyone who knew the girl thought one thing, '_something happened in the future to change both Thalia and Clarisse'._

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns. **

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

"**Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking." **

**Her friends snickered. **

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers. **

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't. **

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me. **

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The ****water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall. **

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away. **

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started. **

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock. **

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing. **

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you . . ." **

"**I don't know." **

"If he didn't know then, then he defiantly knows now!" Annabeth commented.

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead." **

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth." **

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet. **

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her. **

"**What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

"**I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"Lunch time!" Apollo called and then ran out. Everyone else slowly following behind. Nico grabbed Percy's arm and pulled him into a separate room.

"Nico?" Percy asked, confused.

"Can I ask you a question?" Nico whispered.

"You just did, but I'll let you ask anouther one" said Percy.

"Why did you choose not to tell anyone about you, well, home life?" Nico questioned. He automatically regretted it after seeing Percy tense up.

"I-I thought that everyone would think I was w-weak if I told them. Then the war happened and I-I forgot about it. By the t-time I'd remembered everyone would have been mad that I didn't tell them earlier." Percy confessed, close to tears. Nico paused thinking about what to say, he already knew that the only way Percy would accept anything about this the Nico would have to tell him straight out instead of going easy on him.

"Percy...that is the number one dumbest thing you have ever said. No one would be mad at you for not telling, it isn't your fault that you step-father has done..._that_. I don't care about what happened in the past, I'll accept everypart of you. Your past, your present, and what you'll be in the future. I love you, meaning that I love you _unconditionally! _Nothing you do can make me hate you. I know you felt weak while it happened, and that's ok! It means you have feelings and that you care, it doesn't mean that you are weak at all. If fact, you are the strongest person I know, and I'm proud to date you. It takes real strength to have the past that you had and still come out so wonderful, to care for everyone you've met and to be so brave. I love you, so much. I love you when you are strong and comfort me, but I also love you when you are weak. When I kiss your tears away and tell you it'll be ok. I'll always accept you, your flaws and everything" Nico said while holding Percy's face in his hands and using his thumbs to wipe away his tears. Nico brought his lips to Percy's and poured all his feelings into the kiss. All his fears, his love, and his hope for the future. He smiled into the kiss when Percy started to kiss back, both loving every moment of it. Nico pulled back, placing his forehead on Percy's.

"Are you ready to go outside?" Nico asked softly. Percy nodded and the left the room, only to be tackled by a bunch of demigods. These demigods included Clarisse, Thalia, Lia, Annabeth, and surprisingly...the Stoll brothers. Apperently everyone had been listening to the conversation, and felt sorry.

"Percy!" The demigods called out. Sympathetically they all hugged Percy, who was still in shock.

"Wait! What? Were you all listening to the conversation?" Percy exclaimed. The nodded in sync, even Cassie and Jessie, who opt out of hugging him. Cassie because she had gone threw it as well, and Jessie because she didn't really know any of the people here. She instead looked down and played with her jewerly. Eventually everyone got off him and went to eat lunch at last, except for Cassie and Percy. They were still walking to the room, but a bit slower.

"Your new friends are very nice" Cassie commented.

"Yeah, they are" Percy smiled, but the conversation didn't continue. Instead they both reached the lunch area and sat down with everyone else.

_**I'LL SAY THIS ONE MORE TIME! PLEASE READ THE TOP AN! ITS VERY IMPORTANT!**_


	7. Backstory

Cassie sat at the table, surrounded by Percy's friends and smiling a little.

"So, Connor, Travis, how'd you get here?" Thalia asked. The two twins that hadn't been there before, smirked and started their tale.

"Well you see, my brother and I were just minding our own business" at this everyone who knew them snorted in disbelief, "and suddenly we're here." Both the twins said in sync.

"Oh well, now you can also hear Percy's embarrassing thoughts!" Annabeth exclaimed while Percy facepalmed.

"So, who's the pretty girl next to Percy?" One of the twins, Connor I think, asked.

"Percy's sister Cassandra Jackson" Annabeth said in a, can-you-believe-this tone. Both of the twins stared a her in wonder, dropping heir jaws in sync.

"Where have you been all these years!?" Connor said.

"Yeah! Where have you been, how haven't you been killed by monsters yet, no offense" Percy asked.

"After I ran away, I meet a demigod who knew what we were. His name is Chris and he taught me to fight. I got throwing knives, and since then we've been traveling with one other girl, Fiamma, who's a daughter of Negate. None of us really would fit into camp, so we live together." Cassie explained.

"How'd you get the scar?" Percy asked, lacking all tact.

"Let's just say, I have no love for empousi" she said bitterly. Suddenly a smile spread on her face and she ate lunch, cause that's just how she is. All the other demigods smiled, finishing their interrogation. Soon everyone was finished and two new chairs were added into the group. Everyone reseated in there assigned spots. Nico and Percy shared a couch, Nico was curled into Percy's chest while a blanket was placed on them, both made a cocoon and relaxed together. Everyone else sat on either a couch (Jessie, Lia, and Clarrise), or a chair (everyone else). The gods and goddesses sat in their respectful thrones.

"I'll read!" Clarisse said.

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. **

"Course it does, it's camp" Thalia said sagely.

**Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet. **

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough. **

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins. **

"**I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly.**

"**Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall." **

"**Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets." **

"**Whatever." **

"**It wasn't my fault." **

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing. **

A few chuckles followed this.

"**You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said. **

"**Who?" **

"**Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron." **

"Rachael isn't a 'what'" Jessie said, but it was too soft for anyone to hear.

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once. **

"Not gunna happen, Perce" Apollo, Hermes, the Stolls, and Nico said.

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls ****sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend. **

"Probably were, in a way" added Poseidon.

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back. **

"**Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts." **

"**Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now." **

"THAT'S what set you off!?" Almost everyone said in desbelief. The only response they got back was a shrug, thought.

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us." **

"**You mean, mentally disturbed kids?" **

"Only for some of us" Lia, Clarisse, and Jessie (softly) said humorously, thinking of a certain demigod.

"**I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human." **

"**Half-human and half-what?" **

"**I think you know."**

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad. **

"**God," I said. "Half-god." **

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians." **

"**That's . . . crazy." **

"That's a way you can explain it" Thalia muttered.

"**Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?" **

"**But those are just—" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods—" **

"**Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods." **

"**Then who's your dad?"**

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject. **

"**My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history." **

"**He's human." **

"**What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?" **

"**Who's your mom, then?" **

"**Cabin six." **

"Did you really expect him to know that! He just got there!" Cassie said.

"**Meaning?" **

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle." **

**Okay, I thought. Why not? **

"**And my dad?" **

"**Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told ****you before. Nobody knows." **

"**Except my mother. She knew." **

"She probably did" Cassie said thoughtfully.

"**Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities." **

"**My dad would have. He loved her." **

"I did" Poseidon said, while Aphrodite fangirled.

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens." **

"**You mean sometimes it doesn't?" **

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always . . . Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us." **

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding ****school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better. **

The gods and goddesses became thoughtful.

"**So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?" **

"**It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that." **

"**So monsters can't get in here?" **

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless ****they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside." **

"**Why would anybody want to summon a monster?" **

"To kill someone" Percy said bitterly.

"**Practice fights. Practical jokes." **

"**Practical jokes?" **

"**The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm." **

"**So . . . you're a year-rounder?" **

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring. **

"**I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors ****and they're all in college." **

"**Why did you come so young?" **

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business." **

"**Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So . . . I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?" **

"**It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless . . ." **

"**Unless?" **

"**You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time . . ." **

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well. **

"**Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—" **

"**Ambrosia."**

"**Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice." **

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?" **

"**Well . . . no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?" **

**She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal." **

"**You've been to Olympus?" **

"**Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council." **

"**But . . . how did you get there?" **

"**The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get ****off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?" **

"Again! How was he supposed to know that!" Cassie exclaimed.

"**Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out. **

"**Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. **

Athena suddenly got her, 'I know!' Face on.

**And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping . . . I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something." **

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions. **

"**I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just ****tell me the problem . . ." **

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan. **

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn. **

**The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact. **

"**Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store." **

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the ****stealing part. **

"He wasn't" Hermes said proudly.

**I said, "Thanks." **

"**No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?" **

"**I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods." **

"**Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier." **

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything. **

Hermes now looked down in shame.

"**So your dad is Hermes?" I asked. **

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes." **

"**The wing-footed messenger guy."**

"**That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors." **

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind. **

"**You ever meet your dad?" I asked. **

"**Once." **

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. **

"Yeah, now you use tact" Annabeth muttered.

**Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar. **

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other." **

"Percy makes that speach better" Nico said, and Annabeth, Thalia, Lia, Clarisse, the Stolls, and Cassie nodded in agreement.

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the ****cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day. **

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth . . . twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?" **

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies." **

"We all do" Jessie said bitterly, but this time-everyone heard her. Lia and Clarisse patted her on the back in comfort.

"**What do you mean?" **

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until . . . somebody special came to the camp."**

"**Somebody special?" **

"**Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime." **

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before. **

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!" **

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down. **

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of ****the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill. **

"Awesome" Cassie said in, well, awe.

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads. **

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off. **

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur. **

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair. **

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd ****apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends. **

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!" **

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!" **

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course." **

**I said, "Cherry Coke." **

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid. **

**Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke." **

Cassie and Poseidon smiled.

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt. **

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect. **

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday . . . **

Hades and Nico frowned.

"**Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket. **

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something. **

"**Come on," Luke told me. **

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll. **

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell." **

"**You're kidding." **

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of ****burning food. **

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes." **

**I was next. **

**I wished I knew what god's name to say. **

**Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please. **

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames. **

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag. **

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke. **

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron ****pounded his hoof again for our attention. **

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels." **

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table. **

"**Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson." **

**Chiron murmured something. **

"**Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on." **

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag. **

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite. **

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly. **

**That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood. **

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

"Great" Cassie and Nico muttered.


	8. Given the Chance

"Next chapter!" Travis said and then started reading.

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur. **

"That's normal." Connor said.

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache. **

"Well, he's learning" Athena said grudgingly.

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

"Not to mention, Chiron was in the exact opposite way of the target" Annabeth smirked.

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree. **

"Nice way to put it" the male gods who chased after the nymphs muttered.

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me. **

"Excellent!" Ares said proudly.

"**There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear. **

"Sorry, Percy" Clarisse said.

"That's not something you would normal say" Percy commented offhandedly.

"Let's just say, in my time. A lot had changed." Clarisse said in a dark way.

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur. **

"Not at all" Apollo said is disappointment.

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids,**

"Got that right, punk" Ares commented.

**or as good at archery as the Apollo kids**

"Sadly" a lot of people said.

**. I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants**

"I would hope not, brat" don't even guess who said THAT.

**. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. **

Hermes huffed.

**But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me ****either. **

**Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back. . . . **

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes**

Percy looked apologetically to his father.

**. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear? **

"Stupid laws" the gods and goddesses muttered.

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good. **

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me. **

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time. **

"**Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years." **

Hermes beamed proudly.

"**Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said. **

**The camper snorted. **

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me ****in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap! **

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same. **

"NO! Not fair! He's using his water powers!" Hermes complained while Posiedon and Percy smirked.

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward. **

Hermes groaned.

"**Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo." **

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded. **

**The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

"**This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique." **

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand. **

"**Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?" **

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force. **

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck? **

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust. **

**Clang. **

"Crap!" Hermes muttered.

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest. **

**The other campers were silent. **

**I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry." **

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak. **

"**Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!" **

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me.**

"Does it always abandon you when you need it?" Thalia asked, and Percy replied with a rueful nod.

**But Luke insisted. **

**This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?" **

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword. . . ." **

**Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms. **

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D. **

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow. **

"**Fine," he said. "Just great." **

"**So your career's still on track?" **

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

"**Well . . . no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know . . . and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?" **

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete." **

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?" **

"**Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest . . . and even if you did, why would you want me along?" **

"**Of course I'd want you along!" **

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving . . . Must be nice to have a useful skill." **

"Stupid pessimistic goats" Thalia muttered.

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of ****talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins. **

"**Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad." **

"**Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?" **

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject.**

"Sure, you can tell that then!" Thalia grumbled.

"**No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos." **

"**Zeus, Poseidon, Hades." **

"**Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their ****dad and drew lots to decide who got what." **

"**Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld." **

"**Uh-huh." **

"**But Hades doesn't have a cabin here." **

"**No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here . . ." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that." **

"It's not bad!" Nico, Percy and Jessie (silently) said.

"You only say that because you spend so much time in there" the twins said, smirking. It made both the boys blush at the thought of what happened in there, but anyone who ever walked in on them shuddered.

"**But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?" **

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other ****The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx." **

"I'm the only one who held by that promise, thought" Hades said.

**Thunder boomed. **

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make." **

**Grover nodded. **

"**And the brothers kept their word—no kids?" **

**Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia . . . well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter." **

"**But that isn't fair! It wasn't the little girl's fault." **

"Little!?" Thalia and Lia said indignantly.

**Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big ****Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill." **

Annabeth and the two Thalia's frowned at the ground.

**He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill." **

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother? **

The demigods glanced at Percy with pity and empathy, everone of them had felt that way once.

"**Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?" **

"**Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini." **

"**And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?" **

"**No. Never. Orpheus came close. . . . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—" **

"Yes" everyone said on instinct.

"**No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So . . . a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?" **

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one ****with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems." **

"**And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special." **

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't . . . Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?" **

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me. **

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual. **

**At last, it was time for capture the flag. **

"Oh gods" Percy muttered. Nico took Percy's hand in his.

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head. **

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?" **

"No" Thalia said sarcastically.

"**Yeah." **

"**Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" **

"**Not always," he said. "But often." **

"**So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?" **

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one." **

"**Whose side are we on?" **

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew ****something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help." **

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support. **

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. **

Dionysus smiled a bit behind his magazine.

**Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff, but they weren't very aggressive. **

Demeter sighed, "It's true".

**Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.**

Aphrodite sighed as well.

**Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.**

Said God smiled.

**That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else ****on the planet. **

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. **

"**Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" **

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal. **

"**Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?" **

"Of course, Seaweed Brain".

"How was he supposed to know that" Cassie commented.

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol." **

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, ****with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes. **

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!" **

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north. **

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey." **

**She kept marching. **

"**So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?" **

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something. **

"That's rude" Jesse muttered.

"**Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, ****don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?" **

"**Border patrol, whatever that means." **

"**It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan." **

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust. **

"**Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team." **

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees. **

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball. **

**There was no way anybody would actually ****attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right? **

"We would do something about it if a certain Queen of the Gods would let us" Apollo said.

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory. **

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual. **

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by. **

Posiedon nervously grabbed his chair.

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me. **

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating. **

Previously mentioned god let go of his chair in relaxation, but was still tense.

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark. **

"**Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed. **

Posiedon glared at future Clarisse while said girl apologized quickly. Before she was turned into a dolphin.

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of ****her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better. **

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin. **

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned. **

**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back. **

"Damn" Cassie muttered.

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt. **

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing. **

"**Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his ****hair." **

"How about they not" Nico frowned, worried.

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb. **

"**Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared." **

"**The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way. **

Annabeth facepalmed.

"**Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid." **

"**You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say. **

"You impulsive idiot" Nico muttered.

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates ****slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut. **

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time. **

"**No maiming," I managed to say. **

"**Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege." **

We need to get a new punishment" Athena said to herself.

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans. **

**Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water. **

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other ****guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig. **

"**Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!" **

"Sorry, that's Nico" Thalia said, to the humour of everyone but Nico.

"Traitors" he said.

**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek. **

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse. **

"**A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick." **

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran ****across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn. **

**The game was over. We'd won. **

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero." **

**I looked, but she wasn't there. **

"**Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head. **

**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan." **

"**A plan to get me pulverized." **

"**I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but . . ." She shrugged. "You didn't need help." **

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?" **

"**Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?" **

"**No. It was a sword cut. Look at it." **

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared. **

"**I—I don't get it," I said. **

**Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy." **

"**What—"**

"**Just do it." **

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me. **

"**Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want . . . I assumed it would be Zeus. . . ." **

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest. **

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!" **

**Annabeth drew her sword. **

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers. **

"You sent a hellhound after my son!" Posiedon said and then started having a fit.

**It was looking straight at me. **

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who ****yelled, "Percy, run!" **

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth— and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hound's neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet. **

**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat. **

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim. **

"**Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't . . . they're not supposed to . . ." **

"**Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone. **

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!" **

"Yes, and then it attacked him" Annabeth said dryly.

"**Be quiet, child," Chiron told her. **

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared. **

"**You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water." **

"**I'm okay." **

"**No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this." **

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me. **

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

"**Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry. . . ." **

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head. **

"**Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um . . ." **

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident. **

"**Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good." **

"**It is determined," Chiron announced. **

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it. **

"**My father?" I asked, completely bewildered. **

"**Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**

"Done. How abouth we do one more chapter before we eat" Athena said. All agreed to the plan and got ready for a new chapter.


	9. Idle Minds

**The next morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three. **

**I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else. **

**And I was absolutely miserable. **

The children of the Big Three looked at each other in pity, while their father's looked down in shame.

**Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid—or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood—I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease. **

**Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back. **

"Probably were" Jesse muttered.

**The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of ****the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe. **

**The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process. **

"**You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions." **

**Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes. **

**After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest . . . Poseidon? . . . Dirty rotten . . . Got to make a plan . . ." **

Annabeth scowled.

**Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her ****venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. I wished she would just yell or punch me or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored. **

**I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page. **

**BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT**

**BY EILEEN SMYTHE **

**Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered ****last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding. **

**Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident. **

**Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past. **

**Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge ****anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline. **

**The phone number was circled in black marker. **

Athena got her thinking face on.

**I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin. **

"**Lights out," I told myself miserably. **

**That night, I had my worst dream yet. I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance. **

**About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.**

**I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand. **

**Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy. **

Zues huffed.

**The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt. **

**I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting! **

**The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice. **

**Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down! **

'Hades? But why?' Athena thought. Her mind overworking.

**The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me. **

**I woke up, sure I was falling.**

"I hate those dreams" Percy said.

**I was still in bed in cabin three. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that. **

**I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold. **

"**Come in?" **

**Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you." **

"**Why?" **

"**He wants to kill . . . I mean, I'd better let him tell you." **

"Smooth" Cassie muttered.

**Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble. **

**For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ****ready to deliver their verdict. **

**Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella. **

"**No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to." **

**I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?" **

**He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does." **

**I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley. **

**But this storm . . . this one was huge. **

**At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business ****but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm. **

**Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents—two sets of cards hovering in the air. **

"**Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity." **

"Snape, Snape, Severus Snape" Cassie sang.

**I waited. **

"**Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father." **

**A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house. **

"**Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said. **

"Man, Mr. D is almost as bad as Percy, " said Nico. That made Dionysus grumble in anger. While Percy just looked at Nico in shock and slight digust, and Nico just smiled innocently back to him.

**Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth. **

"**If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm." **

"**Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in. **

"**Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. **

**Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself. I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father." **

"**Mr. D—" Chiron warned. **

"**Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron ****feels you must do." **

**Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass. **

**He snapped his fingers. **

**The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind. **

**Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover." **

**We did. **

**Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use. **

"**Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?" **

"Scared shitless" Percy said.

**Just hearing the name made me shudder. **

**Chiron probably wanted me to say, Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I ****didn't feel like lying. **

"Good, lying is bad" Posiedon scolded.

"**It scared me," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead." **

"**You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done." **

"**Done . . . with what?" **

"**Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?" **

**I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers. **

"**Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet." **

**Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details." **

**Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together. **

"**Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable . . . something that was ****stolen, aren't they?" **

**Chiron and Grover exchanged looks. **

**Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?" **

**My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And . . . I've also been having these dreams." **

"**I knew it," Grover said. **

"**Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered. **

"Rude" Hera muttered to herself.

"**But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!" **

"**Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. **

**They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen.**

**To be precise: a lightning bolt." **

"SOMEONE STOLE MY MASTER BOLT!" Zues thundered. (Pun intended). It took half the council to calm him down, not without any injuries thought.

**I laughed nervously. "A what?" **

"**Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives." **

"**Oh." **

"**Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers." **

"**And it's missing?" **

"**Stolen," Chiron said. **

"**By who?"**

"**By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you." **

"Yeah right! Percy can't steal a pizza slice from Gabe when he's totally stoned!" Cassie laughed.

**My mouth fell open. **

"**At least"—Chiron held up a hand—"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly—that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it." **

"**But I didn't—" **

"**Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of ****illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief." **

"**But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!" **

**Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid. **

"**Er, Percy . . . ?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky." **

"**Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam. . . ." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.**

**How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted.**

"See?"

**Chiron was waiting for an answer. **

"**Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods . . . they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?" **

"**Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along—the proverbial last straw." **

"**But I'm just a kid!" **

"**Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you. . . . Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"**

"Who even says that anymore" Aphrodite scowled.

"Apparently, Grover" Thalia laughed. This cause several chuckles and giggled, but that soon died down.

"**But I didn't do anything. Poseidon—my dad—he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?" **

**Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?" **

"**Bad?" I guessed. **

"**Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."**

"I wonder if we can have a water balloon fight?" Apollo mutter to himself, a scheme working up a storm in his mind.

"**Bad," I repeated. **

"**And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath." **

**It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky. **

**I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious. **

"I'd be too" Lia and Thalia said.

"**So I have to find the stupid bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus." **

"**What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?" **

"**If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?" **

"**I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago . . . well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel ****of the Oracle." **

"**Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?" **

"**Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge." **

**I swallowed. "Good reason." **

"**You agree then?" **

**I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly. **

**Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill. **

"**All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin." **

"**Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more." **

**Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor.**

**I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place. **

**The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else . . . a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes. **

**I held my breath and climbed. **

**The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things—severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969. **

**By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The ****skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time. **

**Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trapdoor, but it slammed shut. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask. **

**I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath. **

**The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely not human ****.But not particularly interested in killing me, either. **

**I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?" **

**The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies. **

**My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist. **

Nico grabbed Percy's hand a little tighter.

**Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned. **

**His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. **

**The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.**

Percy narrowed his eyes and Annabeth glanced at him quickly.

**Finally, Eddie, our building super, delivered the worst line of all: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end. **

**The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?" **

**The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos. **

**I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else. **

**My audience with the Oracle was over. **

"**Well?" Chiron asked me. **

**I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."**

**Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!" **

"**What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important." **

**My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She . . . she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned." **

"**I knew it," Grover said. **

**Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?" **

**I didn't want to tell him. **

**What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many. **

**And the last line—I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you'll fail. **

**How could I confess that? **

"**No," I said. "That's about it."**

**He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass." **

**I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better. **

"**Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?" **

"**Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?" **

"**Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed. **

"**Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."**

**I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. "Hades." **

"Everyone always blames me/dad" Nico and Hades mutter in sync.

**Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility." **

**A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?" **

"**A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades." **

"**Yes, but—but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon. . . ." **

"**A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest." **

"**Great," I muttered. "That's two major gods ****who want to kill me." **

"**But a quest to . . ." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year." **

"Yes, yes it is." Demeter sighed in longing.

"**Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth." **

**A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed. **

**I was ready to take him on. **

**Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld . . .**

**Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god. **

"That small part of your brain must have left there, because it never seemed to come back" Annabeth, Cassie, Nico, and Jessie said. Even thought no one noticed that Jessie spoke.

**Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips. **

Percy smiled from the fond memories.

**The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide. **

"**Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads." **

"**Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades—and I imagine Poseidon does—they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"**

"**You're saying I'm being used." **

"**I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you." **

**My dad needs me. **

**Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me. **

**I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?" **

"**I had my suspicions. As I said . . . I've spoken to the Oracle, too." **

**I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too. **

"**So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."**

"**Check," Chiron said. **

"**Find the most powerful weapon in the universe." **

"**Check." **

"**And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days." **

"**That's about right." **

**I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts. **

"**Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly. **

"Yep" Cassie smiled. Others looked at her oddly.

"**You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you." **

"**Oh . . ." He shifted his hooves. "No . . . it's just that satyrs and underground places . . . well . . ." **

**He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If . . . if you're serious ****about wanting me along, I won't let you down." **

**I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me. **

"**All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west." **

"**The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America." **

"**Where?" **

**Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles." **

"I repeat. How was he to know that! He's obviously new to the whole demigod thing, give him a break!" Cassie freaked.

"**Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane—" **

"**No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you ****thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?" **

**I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash. **

"**Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive." **

**Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed. **

"**Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland." **

"**That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help." **

"**Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for ****quest like this?" **

**The air shimmered behind Chiron. **

**Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket. **

Everyone but Annabeth (and Jessie) shook their heads fondly.

"**I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up." **

"**If you do say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?" **

"Athena always has a plan" everyone but Athena and Annabeth quoted from memory.

**Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?" **

**The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get. **

"**A trio," I said. "That'll work." **

"**Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."**

**Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather. **

"**No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."**

"Done. Lunch time!"


	10. Paint

**After lunch everyone got together to read the next chapter. Athena took the book and opened to the page.**

**I RUIN A PERFECTLY GOOD BUS**

**"****Percy! I thought you learned your lesson from the last time!" Cass exclaimed. **

**"****Sorry, if it makes you feel better, it wasn't my fault" he offered.**

**"****I'll be the judge of that!" **

**It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.**

**"****Nope, me and Connor 'found' it" Travis smirked.**

**The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies**

**"****Mmmmm" Lia smiled.**

**and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions—whatever that meant. **

**"****It means-" Annabeth started but Percy cut her off.**

**"****I know Wise-girl"**

**He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.**

**Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. **

**"****Good" Athena smiled.**

**I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.**

**Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green Rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," **

**Thalia and Lia shuddered.**

**both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.**

**"****Very true" the two previously mention girls agreed.**

**We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.**

**"****ME~!" the two Thalias said.**

**Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.**

**"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."**

**"****No, just….no" everyone agreed.**

**I heard footsteps behind us.**

**Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.**

**"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."**

**Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.**

**"****So, pretty much you whenever Nico comes?" Annabeth smirked.**

**"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."**

**He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.**

**A few people looked at him oddly.**

**Luke said, **_**"Maia!"**_

**White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.**

**"Awesome!" Grover said.**

**Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.**

**I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.**

**"****Wow, and Nico isn't even there" Thalia teased.**

**"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."**

**"Listen, Percy ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"**

**"****Didn't Rachael say that once?" Nico asked. Percy just nodded in agreement.**

**We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.**

**After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."**

**"****Again, you with Nico…everytime."**

**"Am not."**

**"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"**

**"Oh ... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"**

**She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.**

**I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"**

**He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."**

**I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"**

**His eyes lit up. "Me?"**

**Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.**

_**"Maia!" **_**he shouted.**

**He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.**

**"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"**

**"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.**

**Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason—they all got more training."**

**"That's okay. I just wish—"**

**I stopped myself because I was about to sound like a brat. I was wishing my dad had given me a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as Luke's flying shoes, or Annabeth's invisible cap.**

**"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."**

**He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.**

**"Gee," I said. "Thanks."**

**"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."**

**I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be ... ?**

**"****Yes, Joshua, he is your father!" Cassie smiled and said completely seriously. **

"Ignore her" Percy advised sagely.

**I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.**

**"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. **

**"Its name is Anaklusmos."**

**Artemis stiffened.**

**"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.**

**"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."**

**I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals?" How could it not?"**

**"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe.**

**The Thalias, Percy, and Nico smirked.**

**It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. **

**And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are **_**twice **_**as vulnerable."**

**"Good to know."**

**"Now recap the pen."**

**I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.**

**"You can't," Chiron said.**

**"Can't what?"**

**"Lose the pen," he said. **

**"It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."**

**I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.**

**"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."**

**Sure enough, the pen was there.**

**"Okay, that's **_**extremely **_**cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"**

**Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."**

**"Mist?"**

**"Yes. Read ****_The Iliad. _****It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. **

**You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."**

**I put Riptide back in my pocket.**

**For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. **

**"****Yes, Sparta, you must be prepared for your journey to the Middle Earth" Cassie also said in utter seriousness.**

**I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare.) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.**

**"Chiron ..." I said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time **_**before **_**them, right?"**

**"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age,**

**"****Golden Age my butt" Jesse murmured, this time heard by the others who stared at her, forgetting she was there.**

**which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."**

**"So what was it like ... before the gods?"**

**Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, **

**that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."**

**"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up ****_every thing, _****right?"**

**"****Naw, your good dude" Connor said to relieve the pressure….guess what? It didn't work.**

**Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. **_**They **_**still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure end less pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."**

**"****There once was a boy named Harry,  
destined to be a star.  
His parents were killed by Voldermort,  
who gave him a lightning scar...**

Yo, Harry, you a wizard!

Harry goes to Hogwarts,  
he meets Ron and Hermione,  
McGonagall requires he play for Gryffindor.  
Draco is a daddy's boy,  
Quirrel becomes unemployed,  
the Sorcerer's stone is destroyed by Dumbledore.

Ron breaks his wand,  
now Ginny's gone,  
and Harry is in mortal danger.  
Tom Riddle hides his snake inside  
his ginormous secret chamber.

Harry blows up aunt Marge,  
the Dementors come and take charge.  
Lupin is a wolf,  
the rat's a man,  
and now the prisoner is at large.  
They use time travel  
so they can save the prisoner of Azkaban,  
who just so happens to be Harry's godfather.  
I don't really get it either...

Harry gets put in the Triwizard Tournament  
with dragons and mermaids.  
Oh, no!  
Edward Cullen gets slayed,  
He's back.

Harry, Harry,  
it's getting scary.  
Voldemort is back  
and now you're a revolutionary Harry.  
Dumbledore, Dumbledore,  
why is he ignoring your  
costant attempts to contact him?  
He is forced to leave the school,  
Umbridge arrives,  
Draco's a tool.  
Kids break into the Ministry,  
Sirius Black is dead as can be!

Oh!

Split your soul,  
seven parts of a whole,  
they're Horcruxes,  
it's Dumbledore's end...

There once was a boy named Harry,  
who constantly conquered death.  
But in one final duel between good and bad  
he may take his final breath." Cassie sang, making everyone crack up laughing at the end. Even Hera and Athena joined in.

**"****What was that!?" Annabeth said while still giggling.**

**"****I was watching too much 'Paint'"**

**"****Paint" said Thalia.**

**"****A YouTube-er" She replied.  
**

**"Our destiny ... assuming we know what that is."**

**"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."**

**"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."**

**"****No you aren't" Nico said.**

**When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.**

**Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.**

**"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."**

**She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."**

**"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?"**

**"I don't hate you."**

**"Could've fooled me."**

**She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."**

**"****Look! You two are even separating your own children!" Hera grumbled.**

**"Why?"**

**She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is ****_hugely _****disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."**

**"They must really like olives."**

**"Oh, forget it."**

**"Now, if she'd invented pizza—**_**that **_**I could understand."**

**"****True" Jesse muttered.**

**"I said, forget it!"**

**In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.**

**Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.**

**Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?**

**I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.**

**"****I can't believe I didn't see that!?" Annabeth swore.**

**Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.**

**I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.**

**Cassie growled, taking a complete personality change.**

**Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"**

**I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or some thing?"**

**"Just your emotions." He shrugged. **

**"Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"**

**I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.**

**"Your mom married Gabe for ****_you_****," Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura…. Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."**

**"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"**

**"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. **

**Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."**

**It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it. **

**Perce looked down.**

**I'll see her again, I thought. She isn't gone.**

**"****Got that right!" Thalia shouted.**

**I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. I was glad he and Annabeth were with me, but I felt guilty that I hadn't been straight with them. I hadn't told them the real reason I'd said yes to this crazy quest.**

**The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.**

**All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.**

**A few people looked at Percy with empathy or pity.**

_**You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, **_**the Oracle whispered in my mind. **_**You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**_

**_Shut up, _****I told it.**

**"****Do you always talk to yourself" Clarisse joked.**

**"****Yep" Perce answered.**

**The rain kept coming down.**

**We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was unbelievable. **

**She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.**

**The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.**

**A chorus of laughs echoed around the room.**

**Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.**

**Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy—enchiladas.**

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."**

**But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too. I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our back packs. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.**

**As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. **

**"Percy."**

**An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.**

**Nico raised an eyebrow jokingly. "Oh?" Percy could only glare mockingly back.**

**It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.**

**I scrunched down in my seat.**

**Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds—same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.**

**They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.**

**The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."**

**"I said if you're ****_lucky_****," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."**

**"****Oh I know" Nico smiled fondly and kissed Perce's cheek.**

**"All three of them," Grover whimpered. **_**"Di immortales!"**_

**"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."**

**"They don't open," Grover moaned.**

**"A back exit?" she suggested.**

**There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.**

**"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"**

**"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."**

**"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"**

**She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof ... ?"**

**We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.**

**Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."**

**"So do I," said the second sister.**

**"So do I," said the third sister.**

**They all started coming down the aisle.**

**"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."**

**"What?"**

**"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."**

**"But you guys—"**

**"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."**

**"I can't just leave you."**

**"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"**

**Everyone stayed quite in anxiety.**

**My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.**

**When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.**

**I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.**

**Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding.**

**Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.**

**I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.**

**The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same—I guess those couldn't get any uglier— **

**but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.**

**The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"**

**'****It?' Athena thought to herself.**

**The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw **_**something, **_**all right.**

**"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"**

**The Furies raised their whips.**

**Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.**

**What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.**

**The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rear-view mirror.**

**Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.**

**"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey—whoa!"**

**We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.**

**We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.**

**Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.**

**Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.**

**The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.**

**The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.**

**I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"**

**The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.**

**Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.**

**"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."**

**"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.**

**She growled.**

**Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.**

**I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.**

**The Furies hesitated.**

**Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.**

**"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."**

**"Nice try," I told her.**

**"Percy, look out!" Annabeth cried.**

**Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.**

**My hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but I managed not to drop Riptide.**

**I stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. I turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust. Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.**

**"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"**

**The Fury I'd hilt-slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.**

**Mrs. Dodds was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover got Mrs. Dodds's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.**

**"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"**

_**"Braccas meas vescimini!"**_** I yelled.**

**Cassie chuckled, but no one else understood what he said.**

**I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. **

**"****How'd you know Latin?" Annabeth questioned, thoroughly confused.**

**"****I really don't know" the questioned demigod answered, but unknown to others the Futures only wondered how he knew Latin, even then.**

**I think it meant "Eat my pants!"**

**Suddenly everyone got the reason that Cassie was laughing earlier and joined in.**

**Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.**

**"Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me. "Now!" I didn't need any encouragement.**

**We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!" A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.**

**"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our—"**

**_BOOOOOM!_**

I **The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.**

**"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"**

**We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.**

**Everyone sighed in relief.**

**.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.**

**Twenty pages in Word, oh good Lordy. I'm just happy that I finished, and SUPER sorry about the delay. I'll try to update a lot more.**

**Adios, amigos**


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